JQTCmd - Apple QuickTake Manager v1.0

Every story has a beginning, and in this case that beginning starts with JQuickTake, which you can find over here.

With that out of the way, let's talk about JQTCmd, which is essentially a stripped-down command-line version of JQuickTake.

Note that JQTCmd 1.0 is based on capabilities within JQuickTake v1.4.

The Solution

JQTCmd is a Java application that can be run from a console/terminal or embedded in a custom script. Its main purpose is to connect to an Apple QuickTake 100/150 camera and save pictures from the camera to a local PC. Those resulting pictures files are saved in Apple .QTK format.

What The JQuickTake Software Does

The software will currently run on Windows and ARM-based Linux (i.e. Raspberry Pi OS) computers and offers the following capabilities.

1 - It will connect to an Apple QuickTake 100 or 150 camera and display its metadata, including: camera name, pictures taken, pictures remaining, Flash mode, Quality mode, etc.

2 - It will allow you to save Selected or All pictures to local storage as an Apple .QTK picture file, using a customizable file-naming format.

What The JQuickTake Software Does Not Do

JQTCmd v1.0 does lack a few features:

1. This software does not work for the QuickTake 200 camera. It has been developed and tested for QuickTake 100 and 150 camera models. However, it definitely will not work with a QuickTake 200 camera.

2. It does not convert Apple .QTK images to any other format (such as .JPG) at this time.

Installing and Running JQTCmd

The fully-built solution has been tested successfully on Windows and Raspberry Pi platforms - specifically Windows 10, Windows 11, and Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm . While MacOS and AMD/Intel Linux are not specifically supported at this time, the application can definitely be packaged for those platforms if there is a demand for it. Just ask!

The install packages all include a bundled Java 17 runtime to provide an 'all-in-one' solution.

Windows

1. Create a folder on your PC
2. Download JQTCmd-1.0-WIN.zip
3. Unzip the contents into your folder
4. Execute YOURFOLDER\JQTCmd -parms

Raspberry Pi OS

1. Create a folder on your PC
2. Download JQTCmd-1.0-ARM.tar.gz
3. Unzip the contents into your folder
4. Execute YOURFOLDER/bin/JQTCmd -parms

Parameters You Need!

JQTCmd execution is controlled through various command line parameters you specify. The full list of parms is:

-port : Specify the serial port for the camera connection OR specify '?' to display a list of ports (REQUIRED)

-help : List of parameters supported by JQTCmd (OPTIONAL)

-meta : Display camera data such as name, pictures taken, etc. (OPTIONAL)

-silent : Suppress any messages that are normally displayed (OPTIONAL)

-save : Specify which picture# to save to a file OR specify 'all' to save all pictures from camera. Filename used will be IMAGEnn.qtk (OPTIONAL)

-savepath : The filepath to which pictures will be saved. Default is the local directory (OPTIONAL)

-saveprefix : Specify text that will be used as a prefix to each picture filename. Default is no prefix. (OPTIONAL)

-delete : Delete ALL pictures on camera. This will be processed AFTER all other actions (e.g. after pictures are saved). (OPTIONAL)

WARNING!! Any filenames that already exist will be overwritten when pictures are being saved!

Example 1: JQTCmd -port COM3 -save 3 -prefix 'Vacation'

This will access the camera on COM3 and save picture #3 from the camera to the local directory as filename Vacation-IMAGE03.qtk

Example 2: JQTCmd -port COM7 -save all -savepath 'd:\My Pictures\'

This will access the camera on COM7 and save all pictures from the camera to directory d:\My Pictures as filename IMAGE01.qtk, IMAGE02.qtk, etc.

Example 3: JQTCmd -port ttyUSB0 -meta

This will access the camera on ttyUSB0 and display metadata from the camera - e.g. camera name, pictures taken, pictures remaining, camera model. etc.

Example 4: JQtCmd -port ?

This will display a list of all serial ports found on your PC

Other Things You May Need

To understand about serial ports, QuickTake cables, serial adapters, what to with .QTK files, and the like, please refer to the JQuickTake documentation.

There Are Some Major Thank-You's Required!

• Colin Leroy-Mira - Again, thank you for sharing your excellent work on the QuickTake Protocol. It made my little project much easier.
• Dave Coffin, for creating dcraw and making sure it supports Apple QKTK and QKTN compression.
• Fazecast Inc for creating and maintaining the excellent jSerialComm library.
• Frank Siegert for writing the lean, mean, and dead-simple RawDrop app that made my dev/test efforts that much easier.

Where You Can Find Me

If you have a question, or just want to virtually point and laugh:

Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/user/Crazylegstoo/

Email - jquicktake@gmail.com

Many Thanks,

K. Godin - London, Ontario, Canada (2026)